University Services: Information Technology

STATE OF IT REPORT - 2017 Overview of Table of Contents 4 US:IT 3 Welcome from CIO

4 Overview of US:IT Organizational Structure Support Services Annual Budget Capital Investments 8 Project Management and Updates

12 System Upgrades and Enhancements

14 Partnerships

15 Team Highlights: Information Security Office System Upgrades Advanced Computing Group & Enhancements 12 16 Scholarship and Development 17 Future Directions

15 Team Highlights

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 2 WELCOME From the Desk of the Chief Information Officer

ello and welcome to the University Services:Information Technology division’s annual State of IT report. In this report, we hope to inform the University of Maine System community with an overview of the US:IT Organization, updates on major projects and service enhancements completed or undertaken this past year, partnerships facilitated and a vision of the future for the US:IT team. HOur division continues to strive to support the ‘One University’ concept by providing reliable, secure and robust technological solutions that enhance teaching and learning, create operational efficiencies and accommodate the business goals of each campus constituency. Information contained in this report was contributed by numerous staff within US:IT and the success metrics reported highlight the ongoing dedication and

David Demers, Ph.D. commitment of the entire US:IT team to deliver exemplary customer service to each Chief Information Officer campus we support. In this report we also outline the collaborations, partnerships and activities we will continue to pursue in order to enhance the technology and information services landscape for the University of Maine system.

It should also be noted that the past year was one of leadership transition for US:IT. Dick Thompson, who retired as CIO in September 2017, was the driving force behind the IT unification effort. This monumental task positioned US:IT to be on the leading edge for the University of Maine System to drive new efficiencies and realize savings in order to combat rising costs and shrinking budgetary allocations. Through his stewardship and leadership, US:IT emerged to serve as a model of success for other units to follow. I am grateful to Dick for his contributions and his strength in seeing this initiative through. It is my goal to continue to build upon this success. To do so will require continued collaboration and teamwork throughout the division as well as with the students, faculty and staff we serve on each campus. I truly look forward to working together as a group to achieve this goal.

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 3 OVERVIEW OF US:IT Structure, Leadership and Staffing

he University Services: Information Technology division consists of more than 200 US:IT employees organized into the following functional areas:

• Support Services • Classroom Technology • End User Technology T• Information Security • Enterprise Computing and Applications • Campus Academic and Business Solutions • Web Technologies • Network Services • Data Center Operations • Advanced Computing Group • Project Management • Data Analytics and Reporting Technology Services

In addition, each campus in the University of Maine System has a designated Campus Information Technology Officer as well as a Campus Operations Manager. These roles are charged with providing each campus with strategic and operational level IT support through collaboration and engagement.

A full organizational chart for US:IT is now available at:

www.maine.edu/its/

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 4 OVERVIEW OF US:IT Support Services

he University Services:Information Technology division supports greater than 100 unique services At this time there are 85 public-facing services in the catalog across a dozen categories: with numerous more internal to IT. The project will continue • Accounts, Access, & Passwords to be refined with documentation linked to services and incident response tracking as the product matures. From • Business Applications September through November 2017, the service catalog had T • Computers, Hardware, & Printing 8,950 views from across all the campuses and the intensity • E-mail, Calendaring, & Listserv of visits has been climbing as the university community becomes more familiar with the facility. • Educational Tools, Online Learning, & Classroom Technology The service catalog is available at https://itservices.maine.edu • Help & Training • Networks, Telephones, & Communications • Project Management, & Consulting • Safety & Security • Servers, Backup, & Monitoring • Software & Applications • Web Development & Hosting In 2016, US:IT formed a cross-disciplinary team entitled IT Portfolio Management chaired by Kim Tran, Campus IT Officer for USM. One of the goals for this group was the US:IT Service Catalog publication of a shared UMS Service Catalog. A service catalog is an industry standard offering that provides the # Public Services client community a menu of services offered, self-service offerings, links to documentation and training, and contact 85 information. In summer of 2017, this group released the # Service Catalog Views very first Service Catalog for IT in the University of Maine System. Beyond providing customer-oriented access to IT (Sep’17-Nov’17) Services, it also supports management of IT’s portfolio of service as well as identification of duplicative services. 8,950

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 5 Help Desk ability for issues to be resolved upon first Monthly Support Desk Call Volume For 2017 contact. At present, Help Desk Calls roughly 90% of calls are 6000 resolved immediately Total # Calls in 2017 (Figure B). 4000 When tickets are unable to be resolved upon 51,160 2000 first contact, speed of resolution is an area % Answered by 0 where US:IT must continue to focus. Students With an increase in call volume in August Answered by Student Answered by Staff in particular, the fall 59.9% FIGURE A semester starts with a backlog of work before % Calls Resolved on he US:IT operates multiple, integrated help classes begin (Figure desks across all the campuses and some C). Various IT units will First Contact additional locations. Telephones are managed need to shift vacations such that the local help desk will receive the to earlier times in the call first and if nobody is available, the client summer to ensure 90% can opt to reach assistance from another availability for an earlier location. The change to campus-first answering was made in peak period. Tsummer of 2016 in response campus feedback about remote assistance not being as reliable. With the current model, Ticket Ages approximately 93% of the total volume of 51,160 calls were 1000 answered locally over the past calendar year. 900 800 Student labor plays an integral part of the IT Support Services 700 600 operation. In 2017, roughly 60% of calls placed to the IT 500 Help Desk were handled by student workers (Figure A). 400 Students, primarily located at UM, UMF and USM, play a 300 200 significant role in after hours and weekend support as well. 100 0 A key metric for a robust Help Desk operation is the percentage of calls resolved on first contact. Training of support staff and the introduction of a statewide, real-time Less than 1 week 1 week or older 2 weeks or older chat tool amongst support staff have steadily increased the 3 weeks or older 4 weeks or older FIGURE C Closed on 1st Contact Sep 2015-Nov 2017 100.00% Through the initial State of IT report, seven new positions were created within IT Support Services. The purpose 90.00% of these positions was to enhance quality of service and 80.00% coverage. All of these positions are filled with six (6) at

70.00% campuses and one (1) Analyst position charged with tracking effectiveness, process improvement, creating documentation 60.00% and ensuring we are leveraging staff seamlessly from one 50.00% campus to another. The result of these positions has resulted

40.00% in extended support desk hours by adding second shift regular staffing to oversee existing student labor and making phone support available to all the campuses on weekends and until FIGURE B 9:00 PM during the week. This totals approximately twenty

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 6 four additional hours per week of service desk availability. As a trial, the help desk was made available 24x7 during The additional staff have also stabilized gaps where we the first two weeks of the spring semester of 2017. This have frequent turnover in entry-level positions, areas where was heavily advertised at all the campuses and yielded only staffing is limited, and illness and vacation has previously six calls over the entire period after midnight and minimal had a profound impact. Staff are regularly deployed to volume between 9:00 PM and 12:00 AM. The experiment assist at other campuses as needed. These new staff have suggested the demand does not align with cost and the also provided assistance in moving legacy services to the strategy will be re-evaluated. appropriate enterprise teams and have facilitated support for computer desktop initiatives at the campus level. Annual Budget he US:IT budget is comprised of compensation and benefits for US:IT employees, non- compensation annual expenses and annual revenue offsets. The consolidated US:IT budget is almost entirely recharge-based, with the rational cost for services and support charged back to individual University of Maine System campuses. This arrangement Tprovides a cost-effective model for delivering a blend of campus-specific and shared IT services for each member campus; this model is also leveraged by other UMS shared services organizations, including human resources, strategic FIGURE D procurement, general counsel, internal audit and finance.

Since 2017, the US:IT budget has experienced modest growth to keep pace with contractually-mandated salary and annual licensing increases. As shown in Figure (D), the FY18 budget increased by a total of 5.1% to $23.739M over the FY17 budget ($22.580M). The projected FY19 budget includes a 4.5% increase over the FY18 budget for a total of $24.843M.

The annual US:IT budget is allocated into several categories, including: • 69% for compensation (salary & benefits) • 31% for non-compensation expenses

Figure E provides the breakdown of the budget with the majority of non-compensation expenses allocated to ‘Supplies FIGURE E & Services’ and ‘Maintenance’.

The projected FY19 budget has a similar allocation pattern (Figure F) to the FY18 budget. The $1.104M increase includes allocations required to fund necessary support positions and negotiated salary increases ($375K) and several non- compensation expenses which represent recently acquired software platforms as well as hardware and software expense reinstatements that were subsidized through other sources in the FY18 budget.

FIGURE F

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 7 Capital Investments

In 2015, the State of IT Report presented to the Board of Trustees outlined several capital investment projects designed to enhance IT infrastructure, delivery systems and improved services to all University of Maine System constituencies in support of the One University initiative.

The Board of Trustees fully endorsed the initiatives presented and authorized $20M in bond investments to support modernization of classroom technology, rebuilding wireless infrastructure and improvements in the MaineStreet ERP environment. Allocations were made to these projects as shown in Figure G. Updates on these projects are presented in the following sections of this report FIGURE G

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Highlights and Metrics

he Project Management Office (PMO) continues FIGURE H to provide guidance to the UMS community throughout an IT project’s lifecycle; from the initial project request through project completion. As the services the PMO delivers continue to mature, the value of applying project management methodology throughout the project Tlifecycle is fully realized, resulting in increased demand, support and adoption by project teams. Figure H demonstrates the increased reliance and demand for project management services for new initiatives from 2013 through 2017. During 2017, the PMO completed fourteen (14) projects and initiated ten (10) new projects (Figure I). The following list represents some examples of the new projects.

• MaineStreet HRMS upgrade • Blue (course evaluation system for UM, UMM, USM, and UMPI) FIGURE I • EAB Campus/Guide (UMA, UMPI, and UMM) • Taskstream (assessment, accreditation, and e-portfolio system for UM and UMA) • UMF website upgrade New Projects

• MaineStreet Financials upgrade • Transfer Equivalency Guides • UMA Website upgrade • EAB SSC-Foundation • learn.maine.edu website upgrade • AiM upgrade • Access Control Completed Projects

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 8 In addition to providing project management services for capacity through evaluation of several practical categories projects requested at the campus and system levels, the PMO including functionality, finishing, environment, displays provided substantial support for the bond-funded Classrooms & cameras, audio and accessibility. Prior to the upgrades for the Future, Wireless Infrastructure, and MaineStreet performed over the past year, the average room scored 2.27 Improvements projects. on the 4-point scale. Following upgrades completed over the past year, average room scores improved to 3.1. A breakdown 2017 PROJECT UPDATES of these improvements by campus are shown in Figure J. Additional breakdown of improvements in each of the CLASSROOMS FOR THE FUTURE functional categories are provided in Figure K. The US:IT Classroom Technology team assists in the design, installation, support and maintenance of audio visual Figure K technology in the classrooms, conference rooms, and event spaces for the University of Maine System. In the past year, the Classroom Technology team has been heavily involved in the 167 classroom installations and upgrade projects underneath the Classroom for the Future project. The team has also completed an additional 24 projects with campus based funding. There has been a concerted effort by the Classroom team with the Campus IT Officer’s to change/shift the culture around using consistent, uniform technology in all campus spaces. In addition to the quantitative measure of improvements made through the classroom investments, qualitative feedback The work completed through the Classrooms for the Future obtained from students and faculty using these newly project during the Summer of 2016 and 2017 has made a renovated spaces indicates the positive impact of the initiative. positive impact on the A sampling of feedback is provided below. teaching and learning spaces. The funds “Made me more focused on teaching instead of trying to get provided allowed for technology to work.” coordinated efforts of the Classroom “I can teach while looking at the students not having to turn for the Future team, my back or to the side.” the Facilities staff “Very versatile for group work. on the various campuses, and the “Much more pleasant environment.” instructional designers, “Make all classrooms like these rooms.” to significantly improve the classroom “I like that the projector and sound system can be controlled experience. A 4-point classroom assessment rubric was with one button. The projector provides a good quality utilized to establish a baseline measure of teaching technology picture.” Faculty Feedback “I like that this room has reliable equipment.” “Better teaching experience for myself and students.”

“It makes it feel more realistic and like you are sitting in the same room as everyone.” “more of a comfortable experience” “I like how there are outlets on the table, it makes it easy to bring a laptop for work and not worry about where we are going to plug it in.” “This has made me realize how many opportunities are available to us students now compared to just a short time ago.” Student Feedback “Instant access to my Professors when I have questions.” Figure J “Easy to use remote and comfortable chairs.”

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 9 After Action Reviews (AARs) AARs were completed on Summer 2017 classroom upgrades for all 7 campuses. Participants were eager to share positive feedback from faculty and students on updated classroom spaces. Areas for process improvement include enhancing communications with campus staff during the upgrade process, better coordination with Facilities to ensure timely completion of facilities related work, more detailed documentation on scope and addressing furniture and FIGURE M technology installation delays on campuses. The project team has worked with UMaine and USM The CFTF team has modified processes as a result of feedback leadership to prioritize classroom buildings. Major upgrades from the campuses. Facilities’ tasks and timelines are now are underway in Bailey Hall at USM and Boardman and incorporated into the project plan. Campuses are now asked to Bryand Global Sciences at UMaine. Estimates and project provide room requests no later than January so quotes can be plans are underway for several other classroom buildings as obtained and equipment/furniture orders can be placed earlier indicated in Table N. to avoid delays. The team is also working with campuses to identify a point person (project coordinator) on each MAINSTREET IMPROVEMENTS campus who can be involved from the initial walk-through stage until room completion. These project coordinators The primary goal of this project is to engage with stakeholders will also be involved in a weekly update meeting to improve (staff, faculty and students) to identify ways to improve their communication. MaineStreet experience. This includes bringing MaineStreet functions to mobile platforms as well as achieving support WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE for the One University initiative by operationalizing business process improvements to create seamless, portable access to This project represents an effort to upgrade wireless service information. and associated cabling and equipment at all campuses to bring wireless capacity to gigabit speeds to support learning and To help ensure the project achieves its goals, the project team living spaces. As shown in Figure L, in 2015, virtually all engaged with BerryDunn, inc. for business analysis services wireless access points deployed on UMS campuses were either including the development of student and faculty surveys, beyond their serviceable lifespan or out of current standards. conducting on-campus focus group sessions, peer institution The goal of this project is to maximize the number of deployed consultations, and to catalog identified requirements. access points that are at current standards. This past year, Surveys were distributed to faculty and students in 2017 wireless infrastructure upgrades resulted in the majority of during June and September to collect input about MaineStreet access points deployed system-wide being at current standards. functionality/requirements. BerryDunn conducted focus groups at all campuses during the week of September 18, 2017. While focus group attendance was lower than anticipated, the discussions provided additional insights into the issues faced by faculty and students when working in MaineStreet. The results of these sessions were consolidated with the results of the two surveys.

STUDENT REQUIREMENTS FACULTY REQUIREMENTS • Mobile-friendly access • Improved navigation • Improved navigation • Notifications of student • Better grades, courses and activity schedule view • Ability to email all students FIGURE L • Simplified course enrollment • Add notes to advisee’s profile Over the past year, eleven residence halls were upgraded • Push notifications for holds, with new infrastructure and wireless networks. In addition, billing, and grades • Streamline/simplify course upgrades to nine classroom buildings have been completed • Dashboard view of relevant catalog logic since June 2017 or are currently in progress. Focus for this information • Simplify grade uploads project is shifting from residence halls that needed to be completed during summer break to academic buildings on the larger USM and UMaine campuses as shown in Figure M.

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 10 Wireless Infrastructure Building Upgrades by Campus

TABLE N

Notes: 3 Insufficient funding for entire building; minimal upgrades to support Classrooms for the Future 4 Partial upgrade due to building limitations

MAINSTREET IMPROVEMENTS (CONT'D) DATA CENTER SERVER MIGRATIONS There were two related developments during 2017 impacting The consolidation of IT in 2012 offered a significant the nature of the project. Campuses have engaged with EAB opportunity to streamline our operations and reduce costs for their Guide mobile app which will address some of the by deduplicating services, reduce the number of servers and needs expressed through the surveys for students. The second amount of storage needed for the university and to house those development is that Oracle is putting more effort into making servers in well maintained, secure data centers. their PeopleSoft product mobile friendly and now nearly all student self-service components are mobile friendly in the Migrating servers from campus locations to the Orono newest releases of their software. This improved support by datacenter has continued to be high priority work for the Oracle most likely alleviates the need to invest in a product System Administration and Data Center Operations groups. to provide mobile interfaces and will allow focus, instead, on In 2017, migration of all servers from University of Maine accelerating testing and implementation of newer releases of Farmington hardware to the Orono data center was completed. PeopleSoft modules. The Farmington IT Support Services, Web Technologies, System Administration, and Data Center Operations teams worked together to migrate 22 servers to the Orono data center and to decommission 27 other servers, for an 80% overall reduction in deployed servers.

Similar work is underway with USM and UMaine legacy servers.

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 11 SYSTEM UPGRADES AND ENHANCEMENTS

WEBSITES/PORTAL A thrust of Web Technology has been to move campus websites from highly customized (but hard to support) website software, often hosted on aging campus infrastructure, to a robust and common framework hosted in a central data center. Such migrations come along with numerous support options, features and functionality sought by campuses for their external-facing websites, including enhanced campus branding, ADA compliance and mobile device friendliness.

Through 2017, Web Technologies partnered with campuses and departments in upgrade and redesign projects to ensure their web presences were up-to-date, performing well, meeting needs, and generating desired outcomes. Over the past year, the Web Technology team completed 5 major website projects including 3 full redesigns (UMM, UMA and University College), migration of USM’s website framework to the Orono data center, and implementing a Web Accessibility tool. Web Technologies also participated in a number of upgrades to several other websites.

Web Technologies also manages the myCampus portal which has seen a nearly 30% growth in use over last year. Campus Portal Usage # Distinct Users ACTIVE DIRECTORY

59,877 Migration of Windows computers to the new University Active Directory is almost complete on the UMF and UMFK campuses. Windows migration has begun at UMaine, UMM, and UMPI. Macintosh computer migrations are underway on the Total # Pages UMaine, UMM, UMF and UMA campuses and have been completed at the UMFK campus.

229,106 WINDOWS 10

In February 2018, US:IT’s End-user Technology area will pilot, and shortly thereafter # Sessions in 2017 deliver, a standard and secure Windows 10 deployment for new computers including commonly-used software and services. This will free IT Support Services staff at campuses from maintaining separate Windows 10 development and support processes 5,684,239 and tools.

# Page Views 10,580,219

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 12 MAINESTREET FINANCIALS PARTNERSHIPS • Go-live: October 2016; Post go-live tasks completed Jan. 2017 MAINEREN • Transaction Volume As stated in the 2016 State of IT report, UMS and USNH released a joint RFP to • Payment vouchers 164,886 replace much of the optical networks in Maine (MaineREN) and New Hampshire • Purchase Order docs 63,124 (I-Beam). The RFP was awarded to Integration Partners of NH with Ciena 6500 selected as the optical network platform. Throughout 2017, equipment was installed • GL Journals 75,018 at twenty one (21) locations across Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. • Employee Expenses 24,772 While the project time-line has been delayed to some extent due to challenges • AP Payments 112,206 with the quality of fiber cables UMS leases between Waterville and Portland, all • HR Journal postings 5,225 equipment has been fully deployed • Chartfield combos 170,000(+) and configured, successfully passed all IMAGENOW tests both pre and post an extended burn-in • Upgrade: October 2017 period. The transition (Version 7.1.5-1664) of production services • 2017 DocumentsVolume: 836,606 to this new platform • Total Pages Stored: 7,658,757 began during the Winter 2017 break with completion BLACKBOARD anticipated by the end • Upgraded: July 2017 of Spring 2018 break. Release 3100.0.3-rel.51+917ccd3 MSLN-MLTI WIFI • # Active Courses: 8,630 2017 proved to be a very productive year for the Maine School and Library Network • # Enrollments: 100,901 (MSLN). Once again Maine has been rated among the top states for Internet connectivity for K-12 schools in terms of connectivity, fiber optic availability and KALTURA affordability by Education SuperHighway. In late 2017 UMS released an RFP for data transport (broadband) • Go-live: April 2017. services for both UMS and • # Media Entries: 4,251 MSLN locations throughout • # Media Files Played: 62,000 Maine This RFP will result in the award of some 760 • # Minutes of Video: 17,000 data transport circuits across • Monthly bandwidth: 2533 GB multiple transport service • Storage Used 33,942GB providers . While awards will not be made until January 2018, it is already clear that the BOX consortium-based contracting • Go-live: Jan 2017 for services will once again • # of Files Stored: 5,400,000 yield benefits to the entire K-20 (and public library) community. • Storage Used: 23TB • # Session Logins: 60,500 2017 also saw the passage of LD-256 which stabilizes state funding for MSLN. The bill received overwhelming support not only from the K12 schools and public libraries who receive direct benefit from MSLN, but also from much of the telecommunications industry, the Office of the Public Advocate, and the Maine State Library. Sponsored by Representative Martin Grohman of Biddeford, the final version of the bill changed the MTEAF’s assessment from a percentage-of-retail-sales based to a fixed-surcharge based assessment. Modeled after how the E-911 system is funded, the MTEAF will restore state-level funding for MSLN to just under $4.0M or roughly to the level available in 2011-2012.

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 13 Networkmaine’s support of the WiFi networks at two hundred Participating in these initiatives is part of US:IT’s strategy and fifty (250) middle and high schools as part of the Maine towards shielding UMS, along with MaineREN and MSLN Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) was scheduled to participants, from any negative outcomes from the recent FCC end in June 2017. We had hoped that discussions with the order eliminating Network Neutrality protections in the US. Maine Department of Education (MDoE) would lead to UMS and MDoE collaborating, much like we do with MSLN and OTO FIBER Internet connectivity, to support the WiFi networks in Maine’s K-12 schools moving forward. MDoE has decided to take Initially formed through an inter-local agreement between another approach. the Town of Orono, the City of Old Town and the University of Maine System in 2015, Old Town - Orono Fiber MDoE has decided that it will no longer provide WiFi Corporation (OTO Fiber) is incorporated as a non-profit networks as part of it learning technology initiative. public benefit corporation created to establish, design, install, Networkmaine as agree to support the existing WiFi maintain and make available an open and competitive basis environments through FY19, under contract with Systems telecommunications infrastructure within the City of Old Engineering in Portland, to provide a transition period to Town and the Town of Orono that enables high speed Internet schools so that they have time to explore, identify funding service in the two municipalities. and deploy their own WiFi networks to replace what has been provided through the state for the past sixteen (16) years. With the award of a Northern Borders Regional Commission grant in 2015, OTO Fiber set off to create a proof-of-concept NEREN (NORTHEAST RESEARCH AND open-access fiber to the premise (FttP) network of at least EDUCATION NETWORK) 6 miles spanning the two municipalities. In 2017 OTO Fiber received it 501(c)3 status from the IRS and shifted its NEREN is a consortium of non-profit organizations that attention away from these startup efforts to the creation of the provide a fiber-optic network connecting and unifying the envisioned FttP network. research and education communities in New York and New England. NEREN owns and operates a regional Research In September 2017 OTO Fiber released an RFQ for a and Education Network (REN) that ties together in-state consultant to design up to twelve (12) miles of fiber optic fiber initiatives, like MaineREN, effectively creating an infrastructure across the two municipalities. The RFQ resulted open network that links the members not only to one another in four (4) respondents with a contract awarded to Tilson but also to facilities throughout the region and globe. UMS Technologies of Portland, ME. The network design effort is continues its involvement and support of NEREN with Dr. expected to be completed with construction of the network Bruce Segee and Mr. Jeff Letourneau serving on its board beginning in spring of 2018. OTO Fiber’s expects to have the of directors with Mr. Letourneau currently serving as the pilot FttP network available to retail Internet Service Providers Chairman. in the fall of 2018.

In 2017, NEREN has focused on expanding its footprint in NNENIX response to the expressed needs of its members. The first, and by far the largest effort, expands the NEREN network In late 2016, Northern New England Neutral Internet Exchange into New York City to the Manhattan Landing (MAN LAN). (NNENIX) was formed as a non-profit corporation to establish MAN LAN is the largest peering point among regional, a neutral Internet eXchange Point (IXP) that enables its national and international research and education networks in members, educational institutions, and the general public to the United States. By expanding to MAN LAN, NEREN is benefit from the opportunity to voluntarily interconnect for able to provide its member institutions, and their researchers, the purpose of exchanging traffic between the users of each cost-effective high-performance interconnectivity with their network. While over 850 IXPs exist across the globe, the collaborators around the world. Initially UMS will be sharing closest IXP to Maine, and the rest of northern New England, is a 100 Gbps wave to MAN LAN with UNH, Dartmouth and in Boston. UVM. Over the past year, through the generous donation of Similarly, NEREN has acquired dark fiber assets from its equipment and services from various companies, NNENIX has current point of presence in Cambridge, MA to One Summer established its first point of presence (PoP) in Portland, ME. Street in Boston. This location is the largest multi-tenant, UMS and Bowdoin College are charter members of NNENIX mission-critical telecommunications and data center facility in with a number of Maine based ISPs and national entities New England at which more than 75 Internet content providers, including Akamai, Google, NetFlix, and Hurricane Electric access networks and cloud service providers co-locate. With a committed to participate. With the aggregation of demand that NEREN presence in this facility, its members will have very an IXP creates, it is expected that NNENIX will help create cost-effective direct network connections to some of the largest opportunities, price points, and options in Maine’s broadband and most popular services on the Internet. marketplace previously unavailable north of Boston.

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 14 TEAM HIGHLIGHTS

INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICE based on vulnerabilities. Controls are then applied to manage the risk and the assets are reassessed. A combination of Information Security continues to be in the forefront of US:IT controls employ a mix of people, technology and process. An activities. The Information Security Office (ISO) maintains a appropriate balance is required to maintain the strategy of detailed report on the state of the UMS information security, “defense in depth.” which examines threats and measures US:IT employs to reduce the risk to the UMS and its Universities. That report provides We have identified a number of strategic improvements aimed a set of strategies to continue improvement. to suitably enhance current efforts. Among these, we propose better phishing mitigation approaches, a comprehensive While the overall number of breaches to higher education revision of the Information Security Policy and Standards, and institutions has declined in the past few years, the threat staff augmentation. In-depth technical defense strategies are continues. Most higher education attacks are aimed at also actively being explored. personal information, with a growing trend toward more espionage. Phishing continues to be a leading means to gain ADVANCED COMPUTING GROUP access, specifically to steal credentials. The Advanced Computing Group at the University of Maine To address Information Security threats, members throughout was established in 2013 to provide computing infrastructure US:IT are engaged in activities every day that keep attacks and support for the research needs of the state of Maine. in check. At the center of the efforts, four individuals in the The ACG provides complete computing power packages to ISO work to keep security practices honed. This office is advance research, education, and Maine into the 21st century. responsible for policy, standards and practices; awareness and Services include: High Performance Computing (HPC), Cloud training; and consulting with departments to meet compliance Computing with virtual machines (VM), data storage and high standards (including, but not limited to FERPA, HIPAA, resolution visualization technology (vWALL). and PCI). Several major functions and services have been routinized in the past few years. Information Security analysts In 2017, 20 new compute nodes were purchased resulting in the review threats from several sources including reports from addition of 560 cores to the HPC cluster and a 29% increase a 24-7 intrusion detection system. The team regularly scans in processing power. Additionally, 512 GB of high speed systems for vulnerabilities and alerts US:IT staff of needed memory was purchsed to boost overall memory capacity for patching. The team responds to incidents appropriately using nodes utilized for genomics research. 2 new file servers were in-house diagnostics to analyze the extent of any security purchased to test a new 672 TB Ceph Storage cluster. breach as well as contracted support for external investigations Over the past year, ACG completed a successful pilot of that may exceed our capabilities. The ISO has developed a a new Virtual Computer Laboratory service for classes at security awareness program, participates in UMS compliance the University of Maine and the University of Maine at programs and provides a set of services to meet established Augusta. This initiative is designed to provide remote access requirements as well as increase the security posture. to virtualized workstations through a regular web browser. To provide the most efficient and effective information security Additional testing of this platform will continue into the program, the Information Security Office in conjunction Spring 2018 term. Additionally, a collaboration between ACG with their US:IT colleagues applies controls and protections and the UMaine Forestry Department culminated in a forestry commensurate with the risk. An iterative approach is mapping program that was featured as part of the NSF-funded applied such that higher risk assets are identified by data Northeast Cyber Team Program. or criticality and then assessed against foreseeable threats

**Total HPC usage doubled in 2017 going from 7,135,175 hours in 2016 to 14,421,763 hours in 2017

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 15 SCHOLARSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT Presentations and Professional Development

US:IT promotes ongoing professional development and training and encourages staff to accept and seek out opportunities to represent UMS at conferences and other events. The lists below represent some of these opportunities in 2017.

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 16 FUTURE DIRECTIONS Governance and Strategic Planning

SHARED GOVERNANCE • Provide robust communication to clarify system-wide IT vision for supporting the University and the mission of member As noted in the Educause “Higher Education IT Governance campuses Checklist” (March, 2017), IT Governance serves as an essential organizational process which facilitates robust, • Create opportunities for enhanced collaboration to improve efficiency and impact of technology solutions and services effective IT strategy to best meet the needs of the academy. This is accomplished by aligning decisions with institutional • Establish policies and practices to ensure effective Information mission and needs, improving communication within the IT Technologies and Services are afforded to all members of the organization as well as with the larger community, ensuring University of Maine system and community stakeholder input and buy-in for policy, budget and project • Create evaluation criteria for new services and solutions to be decisions and by integrating risk management into the offered to member campuses decision making process. • Provide mechanisms to encourage and support innovation In establishing a revised IT Governance structure for the • Provide robust analysis for total cost of service delivery University of Maine System, several key principles and goals • Provide consistent, predictable project request cycle have been defined. These principles and goals are aligned coordinated with annual University budget cycle with an overall vision for US:IT Governance which is: The basic framework of the US:IT Governance structure will • US:IT Governance will facilitate communication to further encompass various cross-disciplinary teams, all working stakeholder engagement resulting in greater collaboration and communicating together to fulfill the core outcomes of and consensus for IT project prioritization. the governance initiative. The basic structure is depicted in The key outcomes for successful US:IT Governance are: Figure O. • Greater Transparency: through enhanced information The Executive Information Services Council serves as the final dissemination and dialogue with stakeholders decision-making authority for IT-supported initiatives. This • Greater Accountability: US:IT assumes responsibility group will serve to ensure strategic alignment of IT initiatives for supporting and executing decisions endorsed and/or and services with the University of Maine System mission. derived through governance The EISC will receive recommendations and proposals for • Greater Stewardship: US:IT ensures efficient and consideration from two Strategic Councils: responsible use of technology resources supporting the Strategic Academic Technology Council University of Maine system and member campuses • Defines and recommends strategic approaches to leveraging IT resources to support the Academic and Research needs of the A revised US:IT Governance structure will be established in University of Maine System and member campus 2018 and the various committees will be charged to achieve Strategic Information Services Council the following goals: • Defines and recommends strategies and approaches to key IT- • Balance needs of campuses with cost-effective technology related issues and services to best serve and support the needs solutions of the University of Maine System and member campuses

FIGURE O

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 17 Each Strategic Council will be responsible for receiving, The strategic planning development cycle will include defining reviewing and endorsing project proposals from supporting shared mission, vision and values statements for the US:IT advisory committees. The advisory committees supporting the organization, preliminary analysis of existing services and Strategic Academic Technology Council include: assessment of efficacy, identification of new opportunities, defining goals & key performance indicators, and determining Educational Technology Advisory Committee resource needs for accomplishing each goal. Objectives • Provide strategic direction and plan for meaningful and innovative use of technology solutions with broad benefit to incorporated into the strategic plan will be defined according member campuses; Identify opportunities for collaboration to the ‘SMART’ framework (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, to enhance teaching, learning and assessment through Relevant and Time-bound). technology To support the development of the strategic plan, several US:IT Research Computing Advisory Committee task forces have been established to conduct preliminary • Provides strategic direction and planning to provide robust research computing infrastructure to meet the analysis and assessment of current service and support efforts. needs across the University of Maine System and member These task forces include: campuses. Identifies collaboration opportunities to promote and leverage existing and emerging research computing • US:IT Mission, Vision, Values Task Force: To define infrastructure throughout the state. the shared mission and vision for US:IT and the core values to which we aspire. The advisory committee supporting the Strategic Information • US:IT Core Services Task Force: To catalog and review Services Council include: all supported services; categorize each service by use and Administrative Computing Advisory Committee adoption at each campus. • Recommends and endorses standards for IT architecture and identifies opportunities for shared business processes to drive ENHANCED COMMUNICATION efficiency and efficacy across the University of Maine System for supported platforms and applications. During the latter half of 2017, US:IT Leadership has embraced Information Security Advisory Committee the concept of fostering enhanced internal communication as • Provides leadership and direction for the University of well as communication and dissemination with the wider UMS Maine System Information Security Program; recommends community. To this end, several venues and initiatives have initiatives, strategies and establishes priorities for been devised to provide greater opportunity for US:IT staff Information Security infrastructure and compliance needs of to engage with colleagues, peers and campus stakeholders to the University build upon previously established foundations for professional US:IT will seek full implementation of this revised governance development and training. These include, but are not limited structure during the Spring and Summer 2018 months to to: coincide with and inform the annual budget planning cycle. • US:IT Summit: annual division-wide training and STRATEGIC PLANNING professional development day for US:IT Staff US:IT has established a goal of developing a comprehensive strategic plan prior to the start of the Fall 2018 semester. It is • Lunch and Learn Series: weekly series offering anticipated that the US:IT strategic plan will provide a 3-5-year opportunity for US:IT staff to share learning roadmap designed to enhance the technology and information opportunities with colleagues. support and services the unified US:IT division provides to the • CIO Open Forum: monthly all US:IT staff meeting to campus and system communities. The plan will also serve to provide updates on current projects as well as address inform effective budget and resource planning while providing current issues facing US:IT US:IT teams with discrete, annual deliverables. • US:IT Website Enhancement Task Force: Provide recommendations and suggestions on essential services, features and information to be included on the US:IT Website • US:IT Service Outage Task Force: Provide recommendations on strategies and best practices for informing the UMS community on planned and unplanned system outages.

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 18 Summary

Overall, 2017 proved to be a highly productive and effective year as the unified US:IT team continued its ongoing evolution. Based on the success experienced over the past year, US:IT is well positioned to promote and provide transformative, strategic leadership in the use of technology and information to support the mission of the University of Maine System and each campus community. We value and appreciate the ongoing support of our colleagues throughout the University of Maine System and look forward to serving the entire community in the years to come.

US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 19